


The Doe Snapshots

by spiderly (gorb)



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death, Gen, No Mark Jefferson, POV Max, Post-Before The Storm, Rachel Amber Lives, Sort Of, this is me getting rid of him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-12
Updated: 2019-07-12
Packaged: 2020-06-26 21:45:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19777048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gorb/pseuds/spiderly
Summary: Max tries to figure out what the last photos ever taken by Mark Jefferson might mean.You, as the reader, get to know.





	The Doe Snapshots

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my girlfriend (@korrassatos on tumblr) for proofreading <3
> 
> Rated teen because Jefferson goes chungo

Max Caulfield tried peering into the background of the photos. 

She tried zooming in, zooming out, taking a step back and looking at them from a distance, flipping them horizontally, and then vertically, switching from one to the next at an increasingly fast pace until they became a blur… but it still didn’t make sense.

Photo composition was her strong suit, but at barely 15 years old, analysis didn't come easy. She had read some theories, and somehow they didn't seem quite right. There was a puzzle piece that was missing. What was it? What could she be missing?

There were thousands of views on the photos, but… some part of her had hoped that she'd be the one who figured it out. That she would crack the code and be the first one to realize what Mark Jefferson must have seen in his final photos.

***

Mark always preferred to drive alone. He preferred to do a lot of things alone.

This setup with the Prescott boy was going to be a major pain in the ass. Unfortunately, the deal was too good to refuse. Money was really only one part of it… he had money. The security that the family offered him was much more enticing.

It was a clear, sunny day in late August 2010.

He'd been driving back and forth from Portland to Arcadia Bay a lot in the last few weeks. Most of his dealings in Portland were wrapped up by now, and he'd finally be finishing his transition from touring teacher to permanent fixture at Blackwell. The recent surge in applications to the school had certainly stroked his ego, providing yet another reason to settle down at the old alma mater.

The dwindling light filtered through the trees, stenciling the road as Mark Jefferson's sedan rolled through the Arcadia forest. Even if this hadn't been the most direct route, he would still have taken it. At times, the forest, or something in it, had caught his imagination in just the right way and made him stop and capture it on film.

Today would be one of those days.

He saw it from a far enough distance to gently slow his car to a stop and get out, before the creature saw him.

She was standing right in the middle of the oncoming lane. A doe… small, lithe, and oblivious.

It was perfect.

He pulled his camera out and began adjusting it. The doe seemed not to notice him--or perhaps not to care? It gazed in his direction, but stayed where it was, idling.

Making slow, deliberate movements, Mark began moving towards the deer, crouching near the overgrown brush and grass on his side of the road. He couldn't help but smile to himself; the doe had evidently spotted him, but remained where it was. 

He had an uncanny ability to gain the trust of flighty things. It was a skill he had been developing for decades.

Soon it was almost within shooting distance. As he continued to gain on her, Jefferson noticed something unusual: the doe wasn't quite fully grown. She must be a teenager.

He readied his camera and took a few test shots. 

Still, the doe didn't move.

Maybe it wasn't his exceptional skill that kept it there. Maybe the deer was just fucking stupid.

Mark knew that, sooner or later, a car would come, and that deer would die right there in the road. And he would be there when it did. He set himself in a precise position and waited. 

It was the perfect opportunity to capture something extraordinary: the moments before, during, and after the doe transformed from a beautiful, innocent creature into twitching roadkill.

And here comes that moment now.

He could hear a car coming up the road, going well over the speed limit, roaring its engine. It sounded heavy, too. Mark waited, still, crouched near the brush, snapping continuously, poised to capture the exact moment the deer would be hit. He couldn't see the car yet, but as soon as it came around the curve, the deer would be right in its path. He didn't dare take his eyes off the camera, the shot was going to be perfect, and--

***

The driver claimed that he never saw the man. It was only after he got out to see what he'd hit in the tall grass that he realized it was a human being.

In swerving to avoid the deer which he had seen so suddenly upon turning the curve, he had instead struck Mr. Mark Jefferson, age 35. Unfortunately, the man had been concealed in the brush on the other side of the highway.

The driver noted that, upon exiting the vehicle, the deer was no longer in sight.

Max had read this, of course, and factored it into her guesswork. What had Jefferson seen that day? It did seem as if there were something special about the doe… but what? What was she not seeing in these photos that Mark Jefferson had?

Of course, no one would ever get to ask him. The mourners could only project their own meanings onto the infamous Doe Snapshots. A few actually did guess his true intentions, and what potential Jefferson had really seen in the setup--but even fewer of them voiced it, as it was unbecoming of the recently deceased.


End file.
